AgFax Wildlife Review: ‘Chumming’ for Wild Hogs in Florida

An interesting article in Florida Sportsman magazine makes the point that “chumming” for wild hogs is legal on private lands in Florida and a “fun” way to thin their ranks and fill your plate.

“If I’m targeting pigs I’m sitting over corn. Corn is king when it comes to hogs,” writes Cory Decker. “Florida wild pig hunting provides a lot of year-round fun; they are amazing and adaptive animals and make the best barbecue in the South.”

All of that is true, but remember that hunting by itself isn’t going to dent the country’s wild hog population.

In Alabama, wild hogs are “taking over Bankhead National Forest, where more than 70 have been trapped this year alone,” WAAY TV reported. A wildlife biologist estimated that wild hogs are populating about half of the forest’s 92,000 acres.

In Kansas, the Osage County News recently reported on the renewed concern about wild hogs spreading diseases, especially the PED virus that is hammering the pork industry.

In Texas, the preservation of critical habitat for North America’s last wild flock of migratory Whooping cranes is being carried out along the state’s mid coast area through the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service Wetlands Restoration Program.

Mike Christensen is a Web Editor at AgFax.Com. A veteran journalist, he holds B.A. degrees from Augusta (Ga.) College in History and the University of Georgia in Journalism and a Masters in Journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi. An avid golf fan, he grew up in Augusta, just down the street from the Augusta National Golf Club and has attended The Masters tournament for 43 consecutive years. He is a tennis player, a regular runner and a baseball nut. He blogs about Mississippi baseball at All Mississippi Baseball.

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